Christmas Recap

We had a very busy but very fun Christmas season. Lyla loves celebrating family, winter, and all things Santa, gingerbread, candy canes and cookies.

This year she thought it was very imporatnt to get a sparkly light up star for our tree at home. Masud and I have used the same bronze star for 10 years, but now Grandma Jill bought a fancy light up one. We had to find an outlet extender to make it work, but it was pretty and Lyla loved having the tree lit up all the time.

Lyla got to open her present from Faye early and she was VERY happy to get what she wanted most -- a Twilight Sparkle Equestria Girl! She was much more interested in gifts this year nad definitely had a wish list. As usual, her awesome admirers made sure she got pretty much everything she wanted -- THANK YOU!

The weather was super cold, so we had to bundle up often. Lyla likes to wear Masud's hat. I think it's looks pretty cute on both of them! We had the Thornburg family gathering at Mom and Dad's the week before Christmas. Lyla had fun playing babies and hide and seek with Josie and the Bloomquist boys, then settled down for some coloring with the younger Thornburg cousins.

Christmas Eve was at Ryan and Emily's house. They made a great surf and turf dinner and we enjoyed opening gifts as a small group.

Lyla was very proud of the duck dynasty shirt she picked out for Grandpa.

This bucket of beads from Carrie and Jeff was one of her favorite gifts despite it not being on the wish list. She loves to make me necklaces and doesn't even recognize that it's a great fine motor activity!

Christmas morning she was hesitant to get out of bed because she wasn't sure Santa had come yet -- "I don't thinks Santa came yet, Mom. And if I get up, he might not come. I didn't hear him at all, so I'm not sure he came yet." To her surprise, he DID come and she had a stack of gifts waiting for her. Her favorites were a bag of Hershey kisses (she is obsessed with Hershey bars lately), a Rarity Equestria Girl (See Mom, I told you Santa knew what I wanted!), and a Flashlight Friend. I LOVE watching her get so excited.

Christmas Day we headed out to Gibbon. There was a lot of dry, blowing snow, but Masud did a great job navigating the drifts and we made it there without any issues. Lyla was the star of the show and had so many presents that she opened them one after the other and sitll had enough to keep up with the youngest to oldest rotation. She's just a little spoiled, but I guess that's what happens when you're the only little kid. She got to enjoy it this year and only had to share a little spotlight with Pandy, who also got a few things.

It was great to sit down to dinner as a family. Cindy did an awesome job as always and Lyla couldn't get enough of the roast beef and mashed potatoes. We're very blessed to have a wonderful loving familywho is all able to come together to celebrate!